African Americans have the highest overall mortality rate from coronary heart disease (CHD) of any ethnic group in the United States, especially at younger ages. One perplexing fact is that despite suffering more cardiovascular events, African Americans have less obstructive coronary artery disease on angiography, and also appear to have less atherosclerotic plaque burden by coronary artery calcium scanning than the general population. It is now recognized that atherosclerosis is an inflammatory disease. Chronic, subclinical inflammation appears to be one pathophysiological mechanism explaining the increased risk of atherosclerotic disease regardless of the amount of obstruction produced by that coronary disease. In the inflammatory model of atherosclerosis it is the degree of inflammation, not the degree of obstruction that causes acute coronary syndromes and increased CHD mortality. If, indeed, inflammation can explain the excess CHD mortality in African Americans then one would expect markers of subclinical inflammation to be elevated in African American subjects. Because of the disproportionate CHD mortality in African Americans it is of paramount importance to identify predictors and contributors of disease in this population. HYPOTHESIS: Markers of subclinical inflammation are higher in African American subjects as compared to Caucasian subjects and are associated with higher risks for cardiovascular events as estimated from Framingham algorithms. SPECIFIC AIMS: 1. To determine the prevalence of subclinical markers of inflammation in a broad based population 2. To correlate markers of subclinical inflammation with CHD outcomes 3. To identify predictors of subclinical markers of inflammation.